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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3511

Information and communications technology operations technicians

Most of the data centre runs itself. When it doesn't, you're who they call.

Sorting program output and reading job set-up instructions are where AI could take a fair chunk. Monitoring systems is mostly out of its reach, and loading printers and other kit it barely touches.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Information and communications technology operations technicians support the day-to-day processing, operation and monitoring of information and communications technology systems, peripherals, hardware, software and related computer equipment to ensure optimal performance and identify any problems. Tasks include - (a) operating and controlling peripheral and related computer equipment; (b) entering commands, using computer terminals, and activating controls on computer and peripheral equipment to integrate and operate equipment; (c) monitoring systems for equipment failure or errors in performance; (d) notifying supervisors or maintenance technicians of equipment malfunctions; (e) responding to program error messages by finding and correcting problems, escalating the problem to other staff or terminating the program; (f) reading job set-up instructions to determine equipment to be used, order of use, material such as disks and paper to be loaded, and to control settings; (g) retrieving, separating and sorting program output as needed, and sending data to specified users; (h) loading peripheral equipment, such as printers, with selected materials for operating runs, or overseeing loading of peripheral equipment by peripheral equipment operators. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Computer operator - Computer peripheral equipment operator - High-speed computer printer operator Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Computer network technician - 3513

  • data centre operator

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

57 / 100

Changing significantly

AI could do a real share of the everyday tasks. The job is changing shape, not vanishing.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Exposed: Gradient 2

342 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 8 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 42.9 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 42.9 = 57.1.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 2”: A good share of the tasks are affected.

This job rates 20 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Information and communications technology operations technicians 57

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Routine job runs and output.
  • Monitoring systems.
  • Responding to error messages.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Fixing failures.
  • Hardware and physical work.
  • Escalating and coordinating.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • AI data centres.
  • AIOps monitoring tools.
  • Cloud and automation.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Medium

53 could do without you

It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 69 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

20 how hands-on

Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 18 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

20 How
hands-on
18 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 9 US jobs , so treat it as rough.

finger skill 24 · hand skill 17.1 · cramped spaces 12.5 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 67, against an average of 43. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 67

    Retrieving, separating and sorting programme output as needed, and sending data to specified users

    Medium
  2. 50

    Reading job set-up instructions to determine equipment to be used, order of use, material such as disks and paper to be loaded, and control settings

    Medium
  3. 47

    Responding to programme error messages by finding and correcting problems, escalating the problem to other staff or terminating the programme

    Low
  4. 44

    Entering commands, using computer terminal, and activating controls on computer and peripheral equipment to integrate and operate equipment

    Low
  5. 41

    Operating and controlling peripheral and related computer equipment

    Low
  6. 40

    Notifying supervisor or maintenance technician of equipment malfunctions

    Low
  7. 35

    Monitoring systems for equipment failure or errors in performance

    Low
  8. 20

    Loading peripheral equipment, such as printers, with selected materials for operating runs, or overseeing loading of peripheral equipment by peripheral equipment operators.

    Very Low

8 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
69
AI does it for you
53

Sidekick wins, by 16 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 3131

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Out of every 100 conversations

32
68

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job. This job makes up 7.84% of the conversations.

The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 9 of them. We've combined them, counting each by how often it comes up in the conversations, so the busiest one counts most.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should IT operations technicians be worried?

Short answer: not worried, but paying attention. The job is changing.

Parts of it are exposed. Sorting programme output and reading set-up instructions are rated Medium; error messages, commands, operating equipment, reporting faults and monitoring are Low; loading equipment rates Very Low. Automation keeps taking on routine operations.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” family, averaging 66. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →